Doug Eltoft, Chief Technology Officer for the College of Engineering, has received the University of Iowa’s inaugural Information Technology Leadership Award in recognition of his visionary capacity to imagine, collaborate, design and create an ever-changing and robust computing environment.

Co-sponsored by the IT Leadership Development Team and the Chief Information Officer (CIO), the award was established to identify and highlight exemplary leadership in the university’s IT community. Associate Vice President and CIO Steve Fleagle presented the award to Eltoft during the annual UI Tech Forum, attended by about 300 campus IT professionals at the Iowa Memorial Union on May 30.

“Doug has engaged with the technology community on campus for decades, giving of his time to serve on a wide variety of committees and campus-wide initiatives,” Fleagle said. “His ideas and efforts helped lay the foundation for models that today are essential to our daily operations.”

The new annual IT Leadership Award is another step in an initiative to build a strong IT community that fosters collaboration across university units and promotes individual leadership development. In the past several years, nearly 150 IT professionals on campus have advanced their skills and built relationships through leadership workshops and programs. The IT Leadership Development Team also sponsors the “What’s On Your Mind?” lecture series, which focuses on issues currently affecting our campus and provides an opportunity for campus leaders to share insights on leadership.

Candidates for this award are nominated by any UI employee. The nomination process is announced in the spring and includes statements that identify ways these individuals have provided leadership by their level of campus engagement and impact to community IT projects, as well as their initiative and professional growth. In this inaugural year, 13 excellent candidates were nominated.

Find more information on leadership development in the university’s IT community or contact Maggie Jesse, senior director of Office of Teaching, Learning & Technology and chair of the IT Leadership Development Team.